i am a vegetarian, for about 5 months now. Anyway, I usually eat just fruits, veggies, grains, dairy and a lot of beans. I dont have a lot of extra sweets or fats in my diet. But is there something else that i should be doing to be getting the extra protien and all that stuff that i dont get from meat and fish? i also take a womens once a day vitamin usually. Is there anything else i need?
Tofu is a great source of protein.
A lot of the "fake" meat like, boca burgers, etc have great protein options. There's also soy products - like milk, cheese, etc.
good website (it's talking about the vegan diet - but great lists of protein-enriched foods)
http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/protein.htm
You need to be making sure you are getting ALL of your vitimine B complexes. Including vitimine B12 -- which can be found in things that aren't meat, but I don't know any off hand.
I would go to the co-op and talk to the health desk about it. They are generally really helpful. There is a vitimine you can take once every couple of months that will give you all the vitimine B12 that you need.
Yeah, I take B12 and other B vitamins which are hard to find in non-meat items. As well as amino acids - flax seed is great for that.
But I have been healthy being vegetarian/vegan for the past several years. No health problems, not underweight and I'm not anemic.
Honestly, the vast majority of Americans eat far too much protein.
If you are concerned, keep a food diary for a few days, and then calculate how many calories you consume total, and how many of those are from protein sources.
The USDA claims you need 30% of your calories from protein, a numbe rthat I much higher than other groups. The World Health Organization states that only 5-10% of daily caloric intake should be protein sources. Given that the USDA often seems a pawn of the dairy and meat industries in the United States, I prefer to trust the WHO's reccomendations.
I was concerned at first as well, but did some reading on nutrition and have a better idea of what I should be eating.
I totally agree. I have done research on it as well and found that people that do consume meat, get more than enough protein...
Is flax seed have b12 in it or something? or is it that omega thing. Well thanks anyway, and I will have to try out those vitamins kat.
Flax seed has the amino acids in it.
http://www.flaxcouncil.ca/flaxnut1.htm
Good info on it.
I think soymilk can have B12. If you're just vegetarian and not vegan dairy and eggs have B12. I've heard that seaweed has it too.
Protein has never been a problem for me to get (I've been vegetarian since I was 6 years old) Tofu, Tempeh, Rice and Beans, even pasta and cheese are good sources of protein. The trick is combining foods to get complete proteins (for instance, the pasta and cheese need to go together to do you any good in terms of protein.) Irons always been hard for me too, but you can get that from lots of green veggies, and from some fortified breakfast cereals (grape nuts are a great source of Iron.) Hope it helps!
I've been a veggie head for about eight years. I just make sure I eat my beans, tofu, dark veggies and soymilk.